The Body in the Barrel
by Organa46
Summary: A body is found in a barrel behind a house in West Virginia. While on the case will they learn something more about their relationship?
1. Chapter 1

The Body in the Barrel

Disclaimer: All the charcters and stuff belong to Kathy Reichs/the FOX network. I own nothing.

Note: The thoughts and opinions of the characters are not necessarily those of myself.

"So what's going on here?" Dr Temperence Brennan asked from the passenger seat of Seeley Booth's black SUV. He had called her on a Friday morning asking for her help on a case and she had gratefully agreed. Angela had made her promise earlier that week that she would go clubbing Friday night. She hadn't really wanted to go in the first place but after putting it off for weeks at a time, the guilt finally got to her and reluctantly, she had agreed to go. When Seeley Booth came by telling her about the bones out in West Virginia, she had jumped at the chance to go. Temperence genuinely felt bad about ditching her friend but not about ditching the clubs so now she sat in the car holding papers with mapquest directions to a place in the middle of nowhere.

"A few kids went behind their barn in West Virginia to get their bikes. Smelled something funny, it was coming from a barrel near the far side of the barn. They open it a find a body… or what's left of it anyway. An ID was found from an out of state high school. The ID number, bar code, picture, and name has been scraped off so because it's a possible out of state case and it is a possible minor, they called us in and I called you in." He threw her his trademark grin.

For the next twenty minutes the two sat in silence with the exception of Booth asking for the occational direction and Bones reading it to him. Tempe sat taking in the scenery around the two lanes highway that snaked through the foothills of the Apillation Mountains. Crisp colored leaves dance around the car on fresh autum air. It was relaxing to take in the postcard- perect scenes displayed before her on the highway.

As they had entered, what Booth called "nowhere land", the duo had given up on trying to find a station without static. Booth asked about five times in the period of stretch of road that lasted only ten minutes, "How do people out here survive without proper music selections?" He had resolved to humming softly to himself. The songs weren't complete but it entertained Booth as he hummed and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.

"Can you stop that?" Brennan asked after fifteen minutes of the pivate concert she was getting. It was starting to bother her but she didn't let it get to her until now.

"Stop what?" Booth asked after being shaken out of his own little world of past rock concerts and parties listening to CDs from the seventies and eighties.

"That." She said tapping her hands mimicking his drumming on the dash.

"Well talk to the people of West Virginia. They need to get a decent radio station around here. _They_ are the reason for my drumming and humming. _I_ am merely trying to entertain myself on this long and I may add boring drive to the middle of nowhere.." He stated with innocence in his voice. "Next time I'll bring CDs."

"Oh no." Brennan said shaking her head. "That will only make things worse!"

"Worse?" He questioned. "How could it get any worse?" Brennan opened her mouth to talk but she was cup off by Booth saying, "-and that was rhetorical." A slight pause followed. "Now let's see." Another pause. "Well well _have_ to have the classics."

"Okay." Brennan said. "I have several copies of Mozart and Bach at ho-"

"Not _those_ classics. Classics like the Beatles, Eagles, the Stones…" Booth listed off. He stopped thinking of others then turning to her he said simply, "Foreigner."

This got an immediate response. "That's _not_ funny Booth. You could have gotten seriously hurt or worse." Both knew what _worse _ implied, so Brennan left that hanging the way it was.

Booth went to reply but a two-story house and a barn came into view. "We're here." The white house that stood at the end of the dusty drive they were on and it was surrounded by green blankets of grass with polka dots of daisies and other wild flowers spotting the grass. The house itself was the result of many years of hard labor. A white porch to match the house surrounded it and red shutters decorated the otherwise white-washed dwelling. About 300 meters away from the house, a white picket fence separated the house from the barn and fields. Yellow crime scene tape decorated the boarder of the house and barn like strings of popcorn would on a Christmas Tree.

Brennan and Booth hoped out of the car simultaneously. "Nice place." Booth said. He went to duck under and hold the tape up for his partner but Brennan would have none of that and she followed him under and then walked over to who appeared to be head the scene with Booth on her tail.

"Are you heading this crime scene?" Brennan asked looking up at the man in front of her as he was almost a full foot taller then she.

"Lt. Camancho at your service ma'am." Lt. Camancho stood about six foot 5 inches or so with broad shoulders but an almost lanky built. He had a baby face with blue eyes that severely contrasted his dark brown hair and beard and he looked in his late twenties, early thirties. "You're that bone lady right?"

"Yes I'm Dr. Temprence Brennan and this is my partner-"

"Special Agent Seeley Booth." This earned him a glare from Brennan but a hearty laugh from Lt. Camancho.

"I see all ya FBI people are the same." He sighed ending his laugh and then a pause. "So anyway the body. Lady you got one nasty one."

"They always are." She smiled slightly. The Lt. flashed a pearly smile back and Booth scowled. "So where is the body?"

"Well, it's really what's left of it…" Pause. "but it's over there. In that barrel… the one with he blue stripe. Here I'll bring you guys over."

"No thanks Lt. Camancho. We've got it under control." Booth said crisply enough to match the air. "Come on Bones."

"Bones?"

"Nickname." Brennan said back to the young Lieutenant. "And thank you for your help Lt. Camancho."

"Please, Patrick." He said smiling again.

"Thank you Patrick." She said before finally walking toward the barrel. As she neared, the unmistakeable smell of death filled the air. It was one that was undescribable, but it was there and as horrible as ever. Booth was standing off to the side waiting for her. Together they peered inside the barrel which reveled a gruesome scene.

"Now that's sick." Booth said, backing away from the wooded container. The barrel contained what looked like a stew of decomposing flesh, organs and mixture of blood and well as possible brain matter. Bones floated around like celery or pieces of chicken would in chicken noodle soup. On the surface a thin film covered the stew of flesh and tissues. Probably a chemical agent, Brennan observed, to help speed up the decomposition process. She crouched down and opened her kit, pulling out two thick rubber gloves from the top compartment. "Aw Bones are you serious?" Booth asked as a look of disgust appeared on his face. Brennan slipped the gloves on and reached into the barrel. Her arm was about shoulder length into the goop when she finally got her hand to the bottom of the barrel. "What the _hell_ are you doing Bones?"

"Looking for the head." She said simply while moving her arm around. Her face suddenly lit up. "Got it." She pulled upwards with a slight tug and her arm and a skull, both covered in brown slime, emerged. She straightened her stance and placed the skull on the blue plastic sheet that surrounded the round coffin.

"Great! You done?" Booth asked.

"One sec. I think I felt something else in there."

"Really? Cause you know there's not really anything in there. Just a few bones, slop-" Brennan threw a glar at him and reached back into the barrel moving around again as if searching for something specific. Brennan's face went to that of a concentrated on to that of a face of full of regret. She slowly pulled up what she had found and turned up to Booth.

"We've got a second victim Booth."

"What?" He asked, the shock evident in his voice.

She showed him the second skull. "It's a baby."

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	2. Chapter 2

**Important author's note:**

Okay guys. My first note - I have been a really bad author. I only posted one chapter and then I haven't updated and I am sooo sorry. Real life truly caught up this year and it's been pretty hectic. This has been written since august but I've only have about 5 minutes of computer time per day. My second note- this story actually ended up being a combinded version of the last three or four episodes… I thought it was pretty funny when I saw them and then I was like crap well there goes the story. I have had problems getting a beta so this once again is self-betaed and I am very sorry if there is any bad grammer.

XxX

"What?"

"A baby." Brennan said softly placing the tiny skull down next to it's larger look-alike. "If I had to guess, a mother and child. Based on how the skull doesn't appear to be slightly cone shaped, and the size, I'd say that either this baby was delivered very early through a Cesarean Section or it was born at all. My guess is the latter though." She pursed her lips, reaching back into the barrel. Although her concentraion for the most part was the case, she was worried about Booth. He, after all, had Parker, his own son and as a father seeing this, she thouht might have thrown him over the edge. However, her partner gave no reaction other then his question before. He stood perfectly still, eyes trained on the wooden tub in front of him. Although, Booth said nothing, his eyes portrayed it all. They were filled with anger, fear, sadness and shock all at once if possible.

Finally, her hand emerged from the murky substance in the container. "I'll know more when the bodies are transported back to the lab." She paused and as almost an afterthough she asked, "Are we going back to the Jeffersonian or is there a lab around here, or what's going on?"

"We're gonna head back to the Jeffersonian. You and the squints can look at that with all your equipment and stuff." He said a thouch a of pain in his voice. "Tonight we're gonna be in West Virginia. It's just easier. We can head out first thing in the morning."

"Well I'm going to have the crime lab here send it back to the Jefersonian. I'll call Angela and tell her to be expecting it… if she hasn't left already. Or maybe she can tell Hodgins or Zack to just wait for it." Brennan said.

"You heard the lady." Booth said to a nearby CSI who had overheard. He turned to walk to the car. Brennan pulled off her gloves and the sleeves of her blue lab coverall and followed Booth to the car.

XxX

Bennan sat on her bed at the West Virginia Lodge going over the casefile. Photos, preliminary reports and accounts of the three boys who had found the body were spead out across the bed. There wasn't too much she could do without the bones. Her job after all was to examine the skeleton, give a description, age, race, height, cause of death, and possibly a name.

Booth had turned in early, saying he wanted to get some sleep so they could get out early tomorrow and start work on the bones. She deduced that he did not want to discuss the case any further. Deciding he had a point, she gathered the contents of each folder and put each one away in it's respective one. Her phone rang just as she was going to turn off the light. _So much for going to sleep early._ Grabbing her phone, she quickly looked at the caller ID screen. _Angela. I'll call back in the morning._

XxX

Brennan sat in front of the lab table that the body of the Jane Doe was laid on. She had been in the high ceiling space that was the Bone Room for almost three hours putting together what she had of the Jane Doe. Angela, Jack and Zack were around the lab somewhere; Zack was cleaning the remainder of the bones: the baby John Doe. Jack Hodgins was running samples of the soil found near the barrel Angela was probably starting sketches on the face of the Jane Doe and the baby John Doe. She, personally, felt bad for Angela, having to draw the face of a baby.

Brennan sat in the Bone Room, piecing to gether the upper part of the skeleton. She had down to the pelvis and was now analyzing what she had so far. Her findings had identified the skeleton as a Jane Doe: Caucasoid, approximately five feet four inches to five feet seven inches. Time of Death estimated anywhere from 5 weeks ago to a year, most likely the former. Approximate age: based on the development of the bones, fusing or otherwise, she guess the age of the Jane Doe to be anywhere from 16 to 20. Cause of death: blunt forced trauma.

Brennan had looked over where the stab marks appeared on the ribs and possibly they would give a location of a major artery or vein that had been hit. She had found marks on the left third, fourth, eighth and ninth ribs but based on the location, she guessed they had not been fatal. The blow to the back of the head was the most likely cause of death. The Jane Doe had been hit so hard that her skull had fractured into several different pieces. Brennan had spent most of her time putting the fractured skull back together with crazy glue.

Also upon examining the arm bones further, she had found a break in the ulna and radius, probably about six to eight years before death. Although the pelvis appeared to have suffered no trauma related to giving birth, the baby still could have been a still born via cesarean section, the Jane and John Doe might not be related at all or the last possibility, the baby might not have been born at all. Either way, she had sent samples to the FBI lab for further DNA testing. Booth said he would drop by later today with the results, as well as for an update to see if he could get a missing persons list. The Jane Doe also had, what appeared to have been, a slight case of scoliosis in the past. It appeared as though it had been at one point worse so she guessed that a back-brace had been worn at some point. Hopefully, that would help Booth out. That could possibly narrow down the search.

About an hour later, Angela came into the room insisting that Brennan go outside for a break. She had been in the Bone Room for almost 4 and a half hours straight.

"Come on sweetie, you've been in the lab since the beginning of man. Come grab a bite to eat with me." Angela said leaning on the table the Jane Doe was layed out on.

"I can't Angela. I have an outline to work on. Then I'm meeting David." Angela scowled at the mention of Brennan's boyfriends name. David was the accountant Brennan had met online. The two had been dating almost three months and overall, he was a nice guy… _a nice boring guy. _Angela thought to herself. "I have to wait for Booth. Speaking of which here he is now. Thank god." She walked over and left Angela standing muttering something about Booth and David.

"Hey Booth!" she smiled. He had a matching smile plastered on his face

"Bones." He said. "So watcha got for me?"

"It's in my office." She decided not to bring up the subject of the baby John Doe. When they reached her office, she pulled out her laptop which contained the notes on the Jane Doe. A word chart popped up onto the screen. "Ok so here's what we have so far." She pause and then read off the list. "Our Jane Doe caucasoid, approximately five feet four inches to five feet seven inches. The time of death was probably anywhere from 5 weeks ago to a year but most likely the 5 weeks. Her approximate age, she was in the 16 to 20 years range and the cause of death was blunt forced trauma." She looked up making sure he took it all in before continuing. "There were also marks on her ribs consistant with stabbing but based on the location, I'd say they weren't the cause of death. Actually based on the type of marks they made, I'd say they were post mortum. The blow to the back of the skull was the ultimate COD. Her skull was shattered. She broke her left arm, consistant with a fall from a tree or something of that height. That was approximately eight years before death. She also has scoliosis, and might have worn a brace at somepoint. The Jane Doe also hasn't gone through childbirth and by the looks of it the baby John Doe was only 6 months along and is in relatively good condition… considering the state of the Jane Doe any way." She looked up again to see his reaction. He gave none. "Um lets see. I'll send samples to your lab for DNA testing. The Jane and John Doe might not even be related." _Unlikely._

"Ok. Thanks Bones." He closed the small book he had written a few notes on and put it in his jacket pocket.

"I'll print you out a copy. Not squint mambo-jambo or anything the agents won't understand. I'll even have Angela proof it." Brennan said trying to earn a laugh. She got one.

"It's mumbo-jumbo Bones." He said shaking his head. "And that would be great. Thanks." Booth turned to walk out the door of her office. "Hey. You wanna go to Wong Foos for lunch?"

Her eyes turned to regret. "I'm sorry Booth. I can't I'm meeting David." She said. "How about tomorrow?"

"Sure. Sounds great." He walked out of the office and she followed at a distance. Brennan turned to walk back to the lab platform when he heard him call, "I'll get a ist back to you ASAP. Then we can discuss it."

XxX

**A/N- please let me know if I should continue. Please review!**


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